Waiting in the Middle
by FireflySummer
Summary: After the events of Ordis's "Drown", a wide chasm remains between Thor and Loki that will require both to meet halfway. Thor just happens to arrive at the middle first.


**I blame Ordis for this. And elevatortonowhere. It spawned from conversations we were having, and kind of grew into a ficlet of its own.**

**It's meant as a pseudo-afterstory to Drown, except that nobody knows how that fic's gonna end, so that kind of makes it harder for all parties involved. Anyways, the relationships that Loki has with Tony, Steve, and Bruce are all intact, and I kind of just assumed that they continued on. As for the story itself, it's based on a real-life story about how my mother made friends with somebody who didn't want to be friends with anybody. The second is the idea that any improvement in Thor and Loki's relationship requires both going halfway to meet in the middle, and that Thor arrives at the halfway point before Loki.**

**Also I swear I'll get back to the other unfinished fics. One of these days. **

* * *

It wasn't hard to find Loki. In all honesty, Thor reasoned that it was probably because Loki, for once, wasn't hiding.

It was quite the opposite. Every Monday morning Loki would spend with Steve Rogers at a coffee shop (always the same one). Every Wednesday afternoon Loki would accompany Tony to lunch (always a different one). Every Friday evening Loki would materialize in Stark Tower for a movie night.

Thor went out of his way to make sure he was nowhere in the vicinity during any of these times.

It was a bit harder because, although his brother was a creature of habit, he also possessed a degree of spontaneity. So sometimes, Thor would wander down to speak with Bruce and find Loki sitting through a lecture that Thor himself couldn't stomach. Other times, he would enter the gym only to witness him in full combat against Steve. If he had been noisy in his entrance, Loki would notice immediately and vanish in a puff of smoke, while the other Avenger said nothing more.

(Thor wondered if they would, should he ask.)

Occasionally, very rarely, he would enter the scene unnoticed, and was rewarded with watching him go a few rounds in the sparring ring or cackling over one of the Midgardian television cartoons. They were moments he learned to treasure, even though Loki always fled the moment he noticed Thor's presence.

Once, Thor had entered the workshop in search of Tony, and instead had found Loki sound asleep atop a workspace that had unofficially been designated as his. Thor had watched his brother for a long while, barely daring to breathe for fear of accidentally disturbing him, but Loki slept on. When he was certain he would not wake, Thor crept over to a pile of disheveled blankets, returning with the one that smelled distinctly of _Loki_, and draped it across his brother's shoulders. For a worried moment, Thor thought his brother would awaken, but he only stirred a moment before sighing into the soft cloth. Daring not to do more, Thor made his escape.

No, he certainly didn't try to hide. But he didn't want to be found either. At least, not by Thor.

That was the reason he did not continue to live in the tower, Thor knew. Tony had offered him a place, and continued to do so. Thor suspected, although he had never entered those rooms himself, that Loki stayed there more often than not.

Thor himself did not truly live at the tower. He lived in Asgard, and while he was on earth would merely spend time at one place or another, whether it be with Jane or the Tower or the other end of the world. But despite that, Thor was often at the Tower. And therefore, Loki was not.

He lived in a small, but upper-scale apartment that he insisted on paying for himself, despite Tony's offer to buy the entire complex. Thor knew the location and the address. He even knew Loki's phone numbers (all three of them), his email, and the pseudonym he used on social media sites. But none of those things had been _given_ to him by Loki, and therefore the knowledge was stored on the back shelves of his mind, gathering dust.

(Although, he did acquire a tweeting account of his own, under a suitable pseudonym, if only to hear the words that his brother gave freely to this world.)

Thor didn't want things to go on like this, but there was not much else to do. No matter the advice he asked and enacted, Loki stolidly refused to take the hand that he had offered him.

The only thing that seemed left to give was time and distance. And so long as his brother remained in good health and did not try to blow a hole in Midgard, Thor could give him that. Time, at least compared to mortals, was a thing that they both had in great supply.

Except that, despite all of the humility and eye-openers that the norns had decided to pile on him in the past few years, Thor was still not really a patient type. He was no fool, and no longer rushed as blindly into situations as he once did, but inaction was the one action he refused to take.

Which is why he was standing at the foot of Loki's apartment complex, staring up to the windows that he knew belonged to his brother. Loki wasn't there, of course; Thor was wiser than to come within ten miles of the building while his brother was in town. But it was Wednesday, and Thor had treated Tony to an especially exotic meal far outside of the city's radius some week before, implying that the food was very much like that of Asgard. He doubted that Loki would be returning any time soon, if only to prove Thor's words wrong by trying everything on the menu.

For a moment, he fidgeted with the small gift in his hands. It wasn't much—a scarf, like the sort that he'd seen Loki wear in any footage of him at Midgard's official ceremonies. It was impossible to know what sort he liked, but it was soft and elegant, traced with patterns that didn't appeal to him but somehow seemed like something embellished on the cover of an old tome. It was a shot in the dark, very likely one that would backfire on him. Loki would probably set it on fire, or, more likely, Thor had done something wrong and his brother would take an offense where there was none.

Still. It was this or total inaction.

Thor left it in Loki's mailbox, the package fitting just barely through the slot, then ran from that place as though he was being chased by a ghost.

~o~o~o~o~o~

Two weeks went by. Loki did not seek him in a rage and fury, but Tony and Steve kept shooting him _looks_. He almost wished for the former, as then he would know for certain what he'd done wrong.

And then, to his surprise, a small white letter showed up, slid under his door in the night. At first, Thor had thought it just another stray paper, but upon further examination, Thor could see the gold embellishments.

_Thor,_

_Thank you for your stupidly useful gift._

_Next time, I'll see that you're set aflame for so much as touching my mailbox._

There was no signature, but there was no need for one. Despite the hatred in the lines, Thor smiled to himself as he folded the paper and placed it in his desk with the other items most important to him.

The next time Thor saw Loki on television, he was wearing a new scarf with his well-tailored suit.

~o~o~o~o~o~

The note had probably not been grounds for any further action. But it was perhaps the first time Loki had ever expressed something nearing on heartfelt gratitude towards Thor, and Thor couldn't help but feel a swell of pride that he had _finally_ don't something to _deserve_ it. And if that wasn't cause for celebration, Thor couldn't name many things that did.

He waited, of course, for fear that he seem too eager, too pushy. That aside, Loki had…strange, tastes, and it took a great deal more waiting and watching to finally determine a gift appropriate as a thank you for the thank you note.

But then, there was the dragon movie, the one that he _knew_ he had heard his brother quote, at least once. There was a new one to be released, and Thor's first thought was to buy him tickets to the theater. But then his better sense talked him out of it, because if he bought his brother two tickets, as was culturally appropriate, Loki would probably see it as a suggestion for them to accompany each other, rather than Tony or Steve as was intended. Also, Tony probably already had the movie, somehow, and run private showings for them.

Instead, Thor did the next best thing, and decided to brave the local mall despite the inevitable paparazzi. But despite the press's attempts, they never _did_ learn why The Mighty Thor had braved the Build-a-Bear workshop for a Toothless plush.

(The thank you note arrived a week later, this time threatening to launch him out of a helicarrier again should he ever be found speaking with his doorman again.)

~o~o~o~o~o~

The gifts continued, at sporadic intervals. Sometimes, they were things that Thor would bring back from his travels, as though a reminder of the story that he _would_ have shared with his younger brother.

Other times, they were books that Thor wished to recommend to his brother. The only logical way to do this, of course, was to state outright in a note that he had read and enjoyed the novel, proving it with a series comments written in Asgardian script along the book's margins. The first time Thor had received a stern reprimand instead of a thank you note, warning him against defacing books. The second and third times were critiques on his critiques, pointing out all of the flaws in his reasoning, and occasionally pointing out all of the spelling mistakes he'd (purposely) made.

The method of getting the gifts to his brother was a challenge each time, especially since he felt in his heart that each of the presents had to be delivered in person. After threatening him against talking to the doorman, he'd figured how to break in through an upper-story window that wouldn't have been accessible to anybody without flight and/or superhuman strength. That had prompted the threat of a restraining order.

Instead, he had become more creative and more ridiculous with every passing exchange, going so far as to temporarily become an employee of the apartments and acting as a janitor. (That lasted for the exchange of three gifts when Loki must have realized what he was doing, and promptly having him fired and the threat of the restraining order renewed. But even in a written note, the threat sounded hollow.)

Thor's most recent scheme involved employment at a local Pizza Delivery spot. He was stretching now, he knew, but he was running short on schemes. He didn't even have a real gift, this time: only a pizza that he had custom-ordered, with the intent of leaving it on his brother's doorstep. It was a Thursday afternoon, which meant that Loki was very likely in Washington DC, building up some kind of bond with a man by the name of Sam Wilson.

However, before he had so much as set the pizza down, Loki's door flew open. His brother stood in the doorway, giving him a look so judgmental that Thor blushed all the way up under the brim of his Pizza Delivery uniform.

For a long while, neither one said anything. The initial embarrassment began to fade, and Loki's expression remained cold. Thor began to wonder if, perhaps he had read things wrong once more. That the almost playful tone that had entered Loki's notes was his wishful thinking, and cursed himself for destroying the only opening he had been given.

He swallowed hard, preparing to make any apology that Loki would take before slamming the door on his face (and probably changing his apartment), but he was interrupted before the words escaped.

"I certainly hope you brought something to drink with that."

Thor opened his mouth and shut it again, groping for words. Then he pulled from his bag one of the colas that he despised to a fair degree, handing it to his brother and praying that he had not made a mistake.

"And I hope that you've included olives and sausages on the pizza, and no fruit of any sort."

Thor nodded dumbly, managing to squeak out, "Of course."

Loki was shaking his head, but he hadn't shut the door yet, but Thor was suddenly too afraid to let himself hope. And then Loki was opening the door wider and accepting the soda and the pizza. He turned as though to enter the room, and Thor felt a warm glow begin to form. A dismissal was not the same as rejection, after all.

"Are you coming or not?" Loki demanded, "Don't leave the door open, and _take off your shoes _so help me if you get mud on my carpet I will have you catapulted to Muspelheim, do you hear me?"

Thor only nodded dumbly and did as he told, stepping inside and closing the door behind him.


End file.
